April 2009 Archives

The executive director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra announced last week she was resigning at the end of the current season. Jan Newcomb, who had been on the job for just 18 months, said in an e-mail sent to the orchestra's musicians and administrative staff that she was retiring after 30 years working for arts groups to "take the time to do and enjoy other endeavors." She cited spending more time with her family and getting to know Charleston better. Newcomb added she may stay on as a consultant during a search for a suitable replacement. Her retirement came about a week after news emerged that the CSO's resident conductor Scott Terrell took a position in Kentucky as the artistic director of the Lexington Philharmonic.

The truth about yourself will make you feel more alive. That's what Spinoza thought. The 17th-century philosopher thought happiness came from realizing one's nature. This may sound like Oprah and the Quest for the Real Me, but it's not quite the same. This is about essence, the fundamental stuff of existence, not psychotherapy. And anyway, Spinoza believed truth played a large role in realizing that essence. Oprah is more often about feeling better about yourself. Spinoza liked to watch spiders fighting to the death. It's doubtful he was looking to feel better. It might be doubtful that he felt much of anything.

Spinoza's theory of essence came to mind while reviewing a charming and also brutal new volume of poetry by Adam Zagajewski for the Pittsburgh City Paper. It's called Eternal Enemies (FSG) and the opponents in question are those dueling forces that couldn't exist without each other. Like men and women. In the wedding ode, "Epithalamium," Zagajewski equates the battle of the sexes with the battle of time and love. They fight, exerting "hours of anxiety, anger, even hatred / but also compassion, deep feeling." Perhaps in marriage the truth might be revealed so we can "see other beings / in their enigmatic, complex essence."